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Cobots do the heavy lifting at L'Oréal India

L'Oréal India

In short

L'Oréal – one of the world’s largest cosmetics companies – was facing issues at its Indian plant in Pune, as end-of-the-line operations were being carried out manually, posing a severe ergonomic risk to workers. The deployment of collaborative robots for automatic palletization proved to be efficient, while completely eradicating ergonomic risk, allowing for flexibility in deployment on the shop floor for various applications. The cobots are also worker-friendly and maintenance free, and led to the plant witnessing a 5% Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) improvement due to the time saved in pallet replacement.

The business transformation

After an internal ergonomic risk analysis, the L'Oréal India Private Limited plant in Pune realized that their workers were at risk handling manual tasks in the end-of-the-line operation i.e. putting the boxes on the pallet. Each operator lifted 8,500 kilograms of product per 8-hour shift, presenting what L'Oréal classified as a Level 4 ergonomic risk – one of the highest levels of danger to the human body and posture, with Level 5 being the severest.

L'Oréal India

Industry Medical and Cosmetics

Country Asia

Number of Employees 100-500

Cobots used UR10

Video — 2 UR10 robot, L'Oréal India

Collaborative robots have helped eliminate the ergonomic risk completely. They are user-friendly, maintenance-free and extremely efficient. We are really happy to have Universal Robots’ cobots on our line.

RANJIT EKDE, Head of Manufacturing Supply Chain, L'Oréal India Private Limited

The solution

In an effort to be more flexible and agile in terms of serving the market in real time, the plant deployed its first collaborative robot from Universal Robots in 2016. Before the installation of cobots, only one pallet was used at a time for a single application. With cobots, however, two pallets can now be used simultaneously, without stopping the line, thereby saving 30 minutes per shift. The plant also saw a 5% OEE improvement because of the time that was saved in pallet replacement.

“We have different people coming in to work on the same line, in different shifts. Thus, sometimes, when people change, it impacts the efficiency of the line,” said Mayur Raut, Manager, Production Unit at L'Oréal India. “However, cobots have increased process accuracy with a single click. Before the cobots, we had different set-ups that would require 60 -70 minutes to install. Thanks to cobots, we can now shift to a different application with a click of a button.”

Adapting to the market

L’Oréal’s rapid success can be explained by its ability to be flexible and agile in catering to the needs of the market.

Cosmetic industry giant

L'Oréal is one of the world’s largest cosmetic companies, and has been present in India since 1992. The organization produces a range of several products and is in the top suppliers of perfumes and fragrances, haircare products, and cosmetics.